If free will was not real

[GrandizerII]

Here's one for both of you  (gem, irrational)

What you're describing -seems- to be an attept to claim your will for yourself.  To say that regardless of what process makes it all work, or how you came to posess this or that..if it;s yours, it's "free".  Lacking duress, or uncoerced.   Laying aside that I have serious doubts about both of these descriptions of your respective decisionmaking experiences....

Why not just call that your will, or my will, or...just will?  What's free doing there?

Two answers:

1) To emphasize the freedom that comes with possessing a will. More a response to people who argue that one possesses a will but that the will is not free. It's a reactionary thing.

2) Because will can sometimes be coerced by an external entity into choosing between certain options. If my father wanted me as a child to become either a doctor or an engineer, and I exercised my will to eventually become a doctor (I'm no doctor, btw), then I may not have exercised free will even though I did exercise my will to the extent that I chose to be a doctor instead of an engineer. As far as my perception goes, there was no direct force forcefully leading to become a doctor, but I wasn't exactly free enough with my choices either. I did it for my father, not for myself.